


Bentober 2019: Envy

by EnchantressEmily



Series: Bentober 2019 [3]
Category: Widdershins (Webcomic)
Genre: Bentober Challenge, Gen, Headaches & Migraines, Prompt Fill, Snippets, scene retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26762227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnchantressEmily/pseuds/EnchantressEmily
Summary: A retelling of part ofthis scenefrom Green-Eyed Monster from Ben's POV.
Relationships: Jack O'Malley & Ben Thackerey & Heinrich Wolfe
Series: Bentober 2019 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952116
Kudos: 9
Collections: Widdershins Fanworks Month Pieces





	Bentober 2019: Envy

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally [posted on Tumblr](https://enchantress-emily.tumblr.com/post/188650584255/bentober-day-28-envy) in October 2019 for the Bentober fandom challenge.  
> Prompt: Envy

“Ye should wait outside,” O’Malley said as they approached the pub, where the sound of two violins playing a lively tune still poured from the lighted windows. He tossed his cigarette end onto the cobbles, making Ben wince. Really, would it be so difficult to wait a few minutes and dispose of it in an ashtray indoors?

“Nonsense,” he retorted. “I’m a fully-trained wizard, I can handle this!” Secretly, he wasn’t entirely sure that he could – this whole experience was like nothing he had ever read about – but he certainly wasn’t going to admit that to O’Malley.

“Suit yerself,” O’Malley said, rolling his eyes.

Ben ignored him and pushed open the door.

The explosion of light, color, and sensation from all the spirits crowded into the room hit him like a physical thing. Pain seared through his brain, and everything went black.

Ben came round to the murmur of familiar voices somewhere above his head – Wolfe asking a question and O’Malley replying. As he surfaced further from the fog of unconsciousness, he realized that they were carrying him between them, and that he had the worst headache of his life. It felt at least twice the size that his skull should have been able to contain.

As his colleagues set him on his feet, Wolfe kept a steadying hand on his arm, for which Ben was grateful; the movement made the headache, if possible, even worse. He groaned and pressed a hand to his head, which seemed about to split into several pieces. If this was how O’Malley felt all the time, he thought fuzzily, it was no wonder he was so short-tempered.

Wolfe sniffed the air, evidently noticing the reek of alcohol that still hung around both Ben and O’Malley. “Are you drunk?” he asked doubtfully.

“I _wish_ ,” O’Malley grumbled. “Y’seen Voss?”

Ben scarcely heard what Wolfe replied, because that was when he turned his head and looked at the taller man properly for the first time. He gave an involuntary yelp and lurched backward, bumping into O’Malley, who grabbed his collar to keep him upright.

Ben stared upward, stunned. All the other spirits he had seen tonight hovered just above the heads of the people they belonged to, but Wolfe’s spirit was a vast, soaring river of color, ending in a human figure holding a violin. It was so powerful that he should have felt like a crowd all by himself; instead Ben got a profound sensation of calm and serenity, like Wolfe’s normal personality amplified tenfold.

“Is he, ah… _always_ like that?” he managed.

“Yeah,” O’Malley said curtly.

“That’s…” Ben fumbled for words, but there simply weren’t any to describe this. He finally settled for, “He’s very… _there_.”

“Ye get used t’ it,” O’Malley muttered. 

There was an odd note in his voice, but Ben was too confused and overwhelmed to work out what it was. He was surrounded by visible emotions that he didn’t know how to interpret, his head was pounding, there were buggerups everywhere, and he desperately wanted a bath. And the evening wasn’t over yet.


End file.
